Milestones

Just 25 years after the Wright brothers' plane lifted off at Kitty Hawk, N.C., and only one year after Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis touched down at Le Bourget Field in France, Pratt & Whitney Canada came onto the scene. Today, our earliest pioneers' stories and images live on in Power, the Pratt & Whitney Canada Story, as well as in other company publications.

The six men who originally came to work for Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Limited in 1928.
The company is founded by James Young (3rd from right), a Montreal businessman.

1929

The company opens its doors in Longueuil, Quebec, to assemble overhaul and service Pratt & Whitney (Hartford) Wasp and Hornet engines.

1940

P&WC begins selling and servicing Hamilton Standard propellers.
P&WC keeps busy during World War II with government contracts and opens Canadian Propellers Limited, gaining its first experience in manufacturing.

1952

The Plant 1 facility is built in Longueuil (Quebec) and the first P&WC-manufactured Wasp engine is completed, three months ahead of schedule.

1953

The company enters into an important post-war project overhauling DC-3 engines for the newly formed Crown corporation Canadair.
Helicopter maintenance work becomes a "bread and butter" business for P&WC in the 1950s.

1960

Military inspection of Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft's lightweight 500 horsepower PT6 turboprop/turboshaft engine, Canada's first turboprop, is carried out by a joint team of Canadian and U.S. military experts. The inspection follows completion of the engine's official 50-hour pre-flight rating test at the suburban Montreal plant.

1963

The first PT6 engine is delivered to Beech Aircraft on December 22.
This engine goes on to become the most popular gas turbine engine in its class.

1968

P&WC becomes the first aircraft engine manufacturer to open a customer training school, which later serves as a model in the industry.

1971

With Cessna Aircraft Company's requirements in mind, P&WC develops the JT15D, a pioneer small fan-jet design, which begins production in 1971.

1971

Pratt & Whitney Engine Services in Bridgeport, West Virginia, is established to assemble and test new P&WC engines for delivery to the U.S. Department of Defense.

1978

P&WC develops the PW100 and several new PW100-powered commuter aircraft emerge, Embraer's EMB-120 Brasilia being the first.

1978

The Overhaul Shop moves into a new facility in St. Hubert, Quebec, and becomes the Service Centre in 1978… the first step to an international network.

1981

Past and present employees participate in the celebration commemorating the delivery of P&WC's 20,000th engine to Cessna Aircraft.

1983

P&WC begins the designing the PW200 with input from Bell Helicopter Textron and MBB of Germany; its first installation is on the MMB BO105 LS-X.

1985

P&WC begins development of the PW300 for larger business jets, with a first application on the British Aerospace Hawker 1000, later renamed the Raytheon Hawker 1000.

1986

Boeing chooses the PW901A auxiliary power unit (APU) for its 747-400 passenger jet.

1995

The PW150, the largest turboprop produced by P&WC, is selected to power Bombardier Aerospace's Dash 8 Q400.

1995

The first model in the PW500 turbofan family is certified, with a first application on the Cessna Citation Bravo.

Pratt & Whitney Canada's Lethbridge, Alberta assembly plant celebrated the delivery of its 10,000th engine, a PT6A engine to Air Tractor, Inc. The landmark engine, a PT6A-60AG was produced for Air Tractor's AT-602 aircraft.

2013

The PT6 engine is P&WC’s iconic turboprop engine, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Since 1963, more than 51,000 PT6 engines have been delivered and the engine has flown more than 380 million hours. It’s an engine without equal, and it has a great future ahead of it!

For non-customer general inquiries, please call P&WC at 1 450-677-9411.